Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Netflix: it will not Orange – ZDNet

If the arrival of Netflix in France fast approaching (Sept. 14), it remains unclear whether the U.S. giant will partner with an operator to offer its service through a box.

One thing is certain, it will not be with the first box of them, namely Orange. “I decided that we would not have the Netflix service at the time of its launch,” said Stéphane Richard, CEO of the operator on BFM Business, both parties having failed to agree on the terms of an agreement

And to explain.. “Netflix it poses for us still a lot of questions The first question is how Netflix will participate in the financing of infrastructure that it uses to deliver its contents. “” The other question that arises is how Netflix will fit into the ecosystem French in audiovisual creation. ” However, the boss said that the group “would notify” thereafter depending primarily on the outcome of discussions between Netflix and French authorities. Moreover, this decision does not prevent access to Orange subscribers VOD service via the Web, but the operator will not be the partner of the giant, yet.

This decision is not a surprise. There a few weeks ago, we learned that the incumbent would be induced by Arnaud Montebourg to accelerate its work to provide an alternative to Netflix offers.

With Sosh?

In recent months, we already knew that the product would take the form of a key to connect HDMI to a TV, as Chromecast of Google. “We will soon commercialize this product and propose an offer that is different from Google “had Stéphane Richard said.

We now know via Express that called Orangecast (ie original) include key chains Free TV, games, access to Deezer (Orange is a shareholder) and VOD from Orange Cinema Series (OCS). Everything is made by Sosh, low-cost brand of the incumbent.

In addition to the defense against Netflix, there is a new offer of service, in particular to households that can not access the TV ADSL triple play. Recall that SFR already offers such a box … with Google.

Orange confirms work product marketing but no date has been mentioned.